We have a great hill in our neighborhood called "The Secret Hill" because you can't see it from just riding around. It's hidden. It's the perfect size for the girls. We've had so much snow between Christmas and New Years Day that we wanted to take advantage of the winter fun we can have up here. Watch these videos and you can see that it was a blast! This video is the longest, the others are quite short. Enjoy!
Another year has passed… my! Where has it gone? This year seems to have been our year of change. We’ve changed homes, which resulted in a change in schools and friends for the girls. We’ve also had personal and spiritual changes as well. We’ve had a great year as a family. We were fortunate to have so many of our family members able to come and visit us this year. From Ronnie’s brother, Jimmy to my parents and Ronnie’s parents to my sister, Lisa and my sister in law, Emily and my two cousins, Michelle and Christy and all of their children J. We seemed to have had a summer full of family. We are so thankful that all of you made such an effort to come and visit with us. We love you and had a great time with you. Here is what we’ve all been up to this past year. We’ll start with Ronnie. Ronnie is doing very well with work. It has been his most successful year so far. He loves being “The Seal Man” and is very good at what he does. With him being 100 % commission, he has to make sure he’s doing his very best all the time. But that’s Ronnie anyway. He is always trying to improve. He is a wonderful husband and father. I couldn’t ask anything more from him. He still stays busy with his sports. He played football and will be starting basketball season soon. (Although he loves it, he complains that he’s not as fast as he used to be! Poor baby, right? Briana is just beautiful and getting taller by the day (can you tell by the picture?). She is really beginning those “transition” years into a teenager. Although she’s not quite there yet, she is fast approaching. She turns 12 this next year and cannot wait to go into the Young Women’s program at church. She has also transitioned quite nicely into 6th grade this year. She has made Honor Roll this first semester with a 4.0 GPA. She loves Harry Potter and has read all the books a few times over. And she’s watched the movies several times over, too. She has also been learning to play the clarinet in band and has loved every minute of it. She’s very self-motivated when it comes to practicing. She is also now our built-in babysitter. Yippie for me and Ronnie! It’s the day we’ve been waiting for. J She does a great job helping with her sisters. Brandi is our little ball of energy. She is our little gymnast (minus the classes). She tumbles and flips around the house constantly. Thus, always finding herself injured in some way. Mom and dad seemed to have lost sympathy somewhere along the way. I thought her boundless flipping and tumbling was a stage, but she has been at this for a long time. So maybe it’s time to put her in real classes. J Brandi is always cheerful and has a great sense of humor. She is always laughing at something- (because at this age, everything’s funny for some reason). She started 2nd grade this year and has done very well. She is a great reader, like her big sister. She has made a great friend here in the neighborhood right across the street. They ended up in the same class at school this year, too. Brandi is getting very excited about her next birthday because it’s the Big 8 yrs. old. We know what that means! She will be getting baptized. She bore such a sweet testimony last Fast and Testimony meeting. It was her first time wanting to get up and bear testimony and she did so well. She is a sweet girl and we are excited for this day to come, too. Brooke is… well, what can I say about Brooke? She definitely keeps us on our toes, that’s for sure. Her little mind is constantly thinking. Much of how I described Brandi reminded me of Brooke. She too has boundless energy. She asks us a million questions and always seems to come up with the funniest things to say. Brooke started kindergarten this year and I worried that she was too young. She started at 4 yrs. old and didn’t turn 5 until last month in Nov. (Michigan’s cut off is Dec.1 and not the traditional Sept 1). So she is a young kindergartener. But already I’ve been amazed at the progress she is making. She is doing perfectly well. She may not be the most focused… but I’ve been to her class many times—I’m not sure any of those kindergarteners are very focused. Tammy is doing very well. I’ve had a year of change, too. With no longer being the Young Women’s president, I’ve found myself wondering what to do next. It was really a privilege to work with the young women of our church (the teenagers). It took up a lot of my time, which was very hard, but it was also very rewarding. But no rest for the weary, now I’m serving as the Secretary in the Relief Society. With the purchase of our new home, I’ve been actively decorating and spending lots of money. (don’t tell Ronnie … okay, he knows! This year, all the kids are in school and it’s been very different for me to have “alone time” at home. I think I drove myself crazy for awhile, but now I’m very used to it. The first day all the kids were gone, I took off shopping. Then I thought, “What am I doing leaving a quiet house?” So the next time they were gone all day, I stayed in my PJ’s, watched a movie on Lifetime and cried, then went to soak in my jetted bathtub and took a nice long, hot bath. “Ahhh!! This is the life!”, I thought. But that kind of day hasn’t happened again for some reason. Maybe I’ve snapped back into reality and realized there is so much to get done. But I think I should schedule some more of those kinds of days. Anyway, life is good. We are healthy and very happy. We love each of you and hope you have had a great year to reflect on as well. We are so grateful for such wonderful family and friends. We want each of you to know that you are thought of and missed very often.
